DEDICATION POEM 1

she came to him in a nightgown under the icebut didn’t pay a visit in room 401 the day his appendix blew

baby snails in the orchids arethe brightest brushlight

DEDICATION POEM 2

for Sanja, two consecutive suicides on the Windsor side

julietting the place where the lower path hugs the rivergot them at the FreshCo for 5.99each stem pink and looking too hard for a party

your tiny meals

our fingers bitter flashes of pink toobending around frozen tubes and weldsjulietting the place where the lower path hugs the river

scrambling to preserve a world of forgotten sounds

children dodging with white running shoesdodging joggers in their Lulu Lemoneach stem pink and looking too hard for a party

cigarettes yield breath all yellow-toothed

closest to the water is where the path splitsthey were skin peeled back kind of coldjulietting the place where the lower path hugs the river

this night is all Spring in February

shed stones from overweighted fieldshanging heavy threading neon in this grey towneach stem pink and looking too hard for a party

fish die when you hug them over and over

we are all from the same salt heap ladieswe are all wounded ladieseach stem pink and looking too hard for a partyjulietting the place where the lower path hugs the river

a neon bathing suit in a steam batha neon bathing suit in a steam batha neon bathing suit in a steam bath

Melanie Janisse-Barlow is a poet and painter living in Windsor, Ontario. She is the author of Orioles in the Oranges (Guernica 2009) which was listed for the Relit Award. She has published poems and experimental essays throughout Canada and the US. Her short essay collection Detroit (Bayou 2013) was listed as a notable essay in the Best American essays for that year. Currently, she is working on the Poets Series - a practo-poetic portraiture series of contemporary poets.

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